


Raise a Glass

by 26stars



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Girls weekend, Vacation, and a little surprise appearance at the end, aosficnet2 exchange, cameos from Fitz Coulson and Mack but they're not central, i tried to pair almost everyone for a moment at least once, oh god so much fluff, our ladies are finally getting the break/moment they deserve, post-canon by at least a year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-12-07 17:21:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11628279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/26stars/pseuds/26stars
Summary: Jemma invites Daisy to plan a girls' getaway weekend before the wedding. Rest, bonding, and few toast-worthy moments.





	Raise a Glass

**Author's Note:**

  * For [clearascountryair](https://archiveofourown.org/users/clearascountryair/gifts).



> For Em/ clearascountryair, whose prompt was "Jemma, Daisy, Elena, May girls' night"
> 
> 'Girls night’ quickly became a girls’ weekend, because god knows our girls need as long of a break as they can get. This is set post-canon, probably about two years down the road from the s4 finale. I meant for all the four women’s sections to be more or less balanced, but May’s section turned out to be the longest, which I guess shouldn’t have been a surprise for me. Hope you enjoy!

**Daisy:**

They had all been waiting for it for months, so the event of Fitz finally proposing to Jemma had been a non-surprise for everyone else by the time he actually did it. Having a ring put on her finger had mostly been the go-signal for Jemma to actually start planning a wedding, something Daisy had watched her staunchly refrain from for months, even when everyone knew one was inevitable. Once the date was set and the location chosen, however, Jemma had barely had an opinion on anything else besides who she wanted to be there. Maybe it was everything they had been through as a group up to that point, but it seemed to Daisy that Jemma had been shockingly apathetic about most of the smaller details, content with setting the time, place, and guests and leaving the rest to others.

All this means for Daisy, however, is that she has far more room to over-analyze and freak herself out on Jemma’s behalf. You know, as the Maid of Honor and all…

“You can’t _not_ have flowers,” she declares one day, dropping a heavy stack of thick bridal magazines on Jemma’s lab desk, an act she hopes is sure to earn her friend’s full attention.

She’s mistaken.

“Daisy, I’m at work,” Jemma says patiently, barely glancing over from the tray of liquid samples she’s currently working over with a pipette and magnifying goggles. “And please don’t put those next to my equipment—they’re likely to soak up substances you don’t want to carry out of this room.”

Chastened, Daisy quickly lifts the stack up again, but she carries them only a few feet away to one of the clear work tables and sets them loudly down once more.

“Jemma, I know you said you don’t care what colors are around you, but I’m sure you’ll feel differently if a florist shows up on your wedding day with hot pink roses for everyone just because he was overstocked. Please, _please_ just tell me three colors you love—I need something to go off of.”

“I don’t need piles of soon-to-be-dead flora adorning the gazebo or in everyone’s hands, I promise, Daisy,” Jemma answers patiently, still hunched over her project. “I knew I was giving up my rights to plenty of wedding accoutrements when we decided on a short engagement. Four months is barely enough time for everyone to get travel to the UK booked—I don’t need the day to be full of details no one will remember. My parents are handling the location and reception, and all you have to do as maid of honor is show up early that day and make sure I don’t run away.”

Daisy smiles, preening internally at the reminder of her honorific role in the event.

“As if you would run away,” she says, shaking her head and moving around to the opposite side of Jemma’s work station, leaning on her elbows and trying to catch her friend’s eye. “And I do thank you for not asking me to buy a dress that I would probably never wear again. But you deserve a magical day, Jemma, and I want to help make it happen.”

Jemma does finally look up, smiling softly as she meets Daisy’s gaze through her safety goggles. “Fitz and I are both alive and whole, and we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together. That’s miracle enough for me, Daisy.”

Daisy can only smile again, unable to disagree.

“Okay, but as grateful as I am that you are as at peace with all of this, I still want you to have a bouquet, if nothing else, and I will make it all daisies if you don’t give me _one_ color to go off of. Come on, Jemma, just one—”

“Purple,” Jemma says then, as if she’s always known that was the answer.

Surprised, Daisy grins.

“Purple,” she repeats. “Seriously?”

“If you’re insisting on putting flowers in my hands, then they can be purple,” Jemma says with a shrug, going back to her work.

Enthusiasm reignited, Daisy returns to the table and snatches up one of the magazines, looking for a spread on flowers that she had seen before. “Any preference on kind? I love purple irises, but I could see you with lilies too…”

“ _Purple_. That’s all you’re getting, Daisy,” Jemma calls, but Daisy can hear the smile in her voice.

“Do you want May, Elena, and I to wear purple too, then?” Daisy asks as she flips through pages of gorgeous ( _terribly expensive_ ) bridesmaids’ dresses.

“I told you, you can wear whatever makes you feel pretty. You won’t be standing at the front together anyway, so it’s not like you’ll clash no matter what you wear.”

“Bless you,” Daisy says, smiling to herself. “My ten-dollar black Express dress will do then.”

“If you’re wanting something else to do, though…well, I was going to ask…” Jemma begins, and Daisy all but pounces on her at the lab station again.

“Yes?” she asks eagerly, and Jemma looks up, smiling shyly.

“I was thinking, maybe a weekend not long before the wedding, we girls could go off somewhere together?” Jemma shrugs. “You know, both a reunion and a last hurrah?”

“Jemma Simmons, are you asking me to plan you a bachelorette weekend?” Daisy says, an even bigger grin spreading across her face and ignoring the stab in her chest at the word _last_.

Jemma looks up quickly, a cautionary glint in her eye. “Not a hen party or a lets-embarrass-Jemma party, of course. If you have any notions that you will put anything phallic in nature within ten feet of me or helping me binge-drink for an evening, you’ve got the wrong idea entirely.”

“Damn. That rules out nine of the ten games I know,” Daisy says, still grinning.

“A getaway, Daisy,” Jemma repeats. “We’ve never really had a normal one, have we?”

And maybe Jemma didn’t mean for those words to be so solemn, but they are. They’re reminders of the hell they’ve all been through for years, a reminder that so far, all their travels together have been entirely for the purpose of holding back the darkness for the rest of the world, never to just …be together. To rest. And besides that, there’s the upheaval of the last year, of returning to earth and moving in different directions, starting over and starting fresh but with piles and piles of baggage that are so hard to bring back into any attempt at a “normal life”…

“A getaway weekend,” Daisy finally repeats, nodding. “Did you have somewhere in mind?”

Jemma’s eyes go distant for a moment, but when she finally looks up, she’s smiling.

“I think May would be more likely to say yes to piloting if you told her we wanted to go to Hawaii.”

* * *

**Elena:**

“I know this car can drive faster than this,” Elena mutters, glancing over at her husband in the driver’s seat.

“Hey now, almost sounds like you can’t wait to say goodbye to me,” Mack says, barely taking his eyes off the road as he glances over at her with a smile.

“Ditch my turtle husband for a jet full of amazing women for the weekend? _Mas vale que lo creas_ ,” Elena responds, but Mack grins as she reaches over and laces their fingers together just behind the gearshift. “I’ll consider this the honeymoon we never took.”

“You said you wanted to save up—“

“Oh stop, you know I’m kidding. It’s not like we don’t have plenty of expenses coming soon enough.”

He squeezes her hand gently instead of responding, and she knows he understands.

Their SHIELD badges get them waved through the gate of the SHIELD airfield, and Mack guides their SUV towards the open hangar where Elena sees a quinjet and a few familiar people already congregated. The ramp of the jet is down, and Elena can see Daisy already toting bags up into the plane. Fitz and Simmons are standing together at the bottom, the engineer’s arm hanging comfortably around Simmons’ waist, and though May and Coulson aren’t quite mirroring the posture, they’re standing closer together than Elena’s ever seen them.

“ _Míralos_ ,” Elena murmurs with a smile as Mack steers the car through the great hangar doors to park it a few meters from the plane. “ _¡Se ven tan contentos!_ Why did they wait so long?”

“Does everyone move too slowly for you?” Mack says, smiling over at her as he turns off the ignition.

“Not hard to do,” Elena reminds him, unbuckling her seatbelt and leaning over for a kiss.

She feels one of Mack’s hands slide over her knee, and he lingers close even after he pulls out of the kiss. “You’ll be careful?” he asks, his eyes concerned.

Elena smiles again and gestures through the windshield at their assembled party. “Look at my entourage. _¿Quién se atrevería a meterse con nosotras?”_

Mack smiling, patting her thigh once before pulling back and unbuckling his seatbelt. “You know that I’ll be worrying twice as much from now on.”

“ _Te puedes preocupar_ ,” Elena says, pecking his cheek again before reaching for her door handle. “But you’re not allowed to deny me my fun, especially when it might be my last chance.”

Mack is already out of the car and pulling her duffle from the backseat, which he puts over his own shoulder as they link hands and walk over towards the rest of their team. “Keep me up to date?” he says quietly as they approach the jet.

“I’ll try,” Elena says, squeezing his hand once. “Hopefully we’ll be having too much fun for me to think about you.”

“Ouch,” Mack says as Daisy catches sight of them, and then it’s hard to hear anything else.

“ _There’s_ our undercover lovers!” she says, skipping down the quinjet’s ramp with empty hands and a wide grin. Elena lets go of Mack’s hand to catch Daisy’s hug with open arms, squeezing back with all the force she wants to even when she feels Mack put a cautionary hand on her back.

“How’s my favorite couple?” Daisy says over Elena’s shoulder, her grin audible.

“Oh, so that’s how it is?” Coulson calls from a few feet away.

“My favorite _married_ couple,” Daisy amends, eyes glowing as she pulls away and launching herself up into Mack’s arms. He catches her easily, smiling smugly as he spins her around once.

“You beat those two couples by a year already,” Daisy teases as Mack sets her on her feet again and she gestures over her shoulder to the other four people gathered. Behind her, Simmons and Fitz roll their eyes with smiles, but Elena spots the secret smile that Coulson and May share.

“Bag?” Daisy prompts, holding out her hand for Elena’s duffle, which she takes readily and scurries up the ramp again.

“Mack, Elena, good to see you both,” Coulson says, shaking Mack’s hand and smiling at Elena. “How are things in Illinois?”

“Awfully quiet,” Mack admits, “but that’s a welcome change, to be sure.”

“I keep bothering him for a transfer,” Elena says, leaning on her husband’s arm, “but he says we should enjoy the calm while it lasts.”

“Good advice,” May says quietly, meeting Elena’s gaze for a moment.

Elena smiles back, then looks over at Fitz and Simmons.

“Congratulations, in person finally. It’s about time,” she says smiling wider at the way they both seem to glow a little brighter at her words.

“About two years late if you ask me,” May murmurs as Daisy bounces back down the ramp.

“Everyone ready?” she chirps, an excited grin plastered on her face. “May, say the thing!”

May smiles indulgently. “Wheels up in five,” she announces, glancing around at them.

“Guys, say goodbye to your women,” Daisy says, smiling around the circle. “They’re all mine now.”

She skips up the ramp again, and Elena turns to Mack. “ _Nos vemos pronto_ ,” she says as she stands on her tiptoes while he leans down to kiss her one more time.

“See you too,” he says as they part, and she’s not sure if she heard the right ‘too’, but either way is worth smiling at. “ _Te amo.”_

“ _Te amo también_.”

May is already in the pilot’s seat and going through pre-flight checks as Elena climbs the ramp, taking a seat across from Daisy in the back.

“Thanks for planning this,” she says as she takes her seat and buckles in. “I was beginning to think we wouldn’t be all together again until the big day.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Daisy says. “We could have had a weekend like this for you too, you know, if you had just _told us_ when you were getting married!”

“Eh, I kind of wanted to hurry things along,” Elena says with a shrug. “Mack’s brother was in town, and he’s the only family we might have waited on, so we just said, ‘Why not today?’”

“You guys had barely been engaged twenty-four hours,” Daisy reminds her. “I can think of lots of reasons why most people would have waited a little longer than that.”

Elena just shrugs again, remembering the quiet Thursday afternoon when she and Mack had tied the knot at the local courthouse with only Mack’s brother and their next-door neighbor present as witnesses. In the photo of the event that is framed on their mantel now, they’re all wearing the clothes that they had had on hand that day—Mack in a white button-down and she in a blouse and jeans.

_As if I would have put on a dress or heels anyway..._

Jemma is strapped into her seat by then, and the three of them look back down the ramp, waving goodbye to the three men waiting below.

“Everyone good?” May calls back to them, and Daisy gives her a thumbs-up.

“Let’s go to Hawaii!” she says, looking across at the two of them with her widest grin yet.

The ramp closes and the plane begins to taxi out of the hangar, and Elena tries to remember the last bachelorette party she went to. She realizes with a small pang that it was the one in Miami, the night of the Watchdog-blackout, back before…

Well, before so many things.

The plane slides out into the sunshine, and May moves flawlessly through the controls and discussions with air-traffic control to take them into a vertical takeoff. Moments later, their plane lifts into the air, and Elena feels something in her heart feel lighter too as the four of them take to the sky again for the first time since their return from space. They’ve hardly been strangers since then, but over a year has already passed, and Elena knows they have a little bit of ground to make up in the time they’ve got all together before…more things.

Maybe this weekend was just what they all needed.

A time to get ready for all the _after._

* * *

 

**May:**

When Daisy had called her up a few weeks ago to not-so-cautiously ask if Melinda was free any weekend in the month before Simmons’s wedding, then in the same breath ask if she was up for a trip to Hawaii, whether Melinda was going or not had hardly been a question. Daisy asking her to pilot the trip had hardly been a surprise, and Melinda suspects that besides being more convenient than enlisting a third party and cheaper than booking commercial flights, Daisy had been relying on Melinda’s connections to the Director of SHIELD to get the use of a quinjet approved.

 _That_ had hardly been a question either—they all know that Phil would do anything to give “his kids” something nice.

The flight to Maui takes only four hours by jet, so by the time they land on the reserved airstrip, it’s actually earlier in the day than it had been when they left the east coast. Fortunately, it’s not too early to check into their hotel, where Daisy has booked them all in a two-bedroom suite together.

“Look at the view!” Simmons breathes first as they walk in, the stretch of turquoise ocean out their top-floor windows stealing all their attention immediately. As if by agreement, they all drop their bags on the living room floor and go straight out to the balcony, breathing deeply in the fresh, salty air and taking in the pool, deck, palm trees, beach, and ocean stretching out to infinity.

“Lunch and then beach?” Daisy prompts, looking hopefully around at them, and Melinda nods while the others agree enthusiastically.

Daisy and Simmons take their bags into one bedroom while Melinda and Elena take the other, opening their duffels and starting to change clothes. Of the three other women on this trip, Melinda has spent the least amount of time with Elena in the past, but the small exchanges they have had have all been pleasant. She’s always appreciated the woman’s directness, and now is no different.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had a proper visit to an island,” Elena says as she swaps out her jeans for shorts and her t-shirt for a loose, flowy top. “First and last time was when we were chasing down Hive, _ese cabrón hijo de la gran puta_.”

“Right. Glad we could redeem _that_ experience,” Melinda says as she pulls a loose, ankle-length, jersey-knit dress over her head, pressing down on distant but no-more-welcome memories of that awful era of their lives.

“Was that your last time on an island too?” Elena asks, and Melinda shrugs.

“It may have been.”

_Right after we lost Andrew._

_Right before we lost Lincoln._

She tosses her phone and wallet into a small shoulder bag, and Elena follows her towards the door, bag on her own shoulder.

“Oh. You’re wearing earrings,” the other woman observes as she falls into step behind Melinda. “I don’t think I’ve seen them on you before. _Se ven bien_.”

Melinda smiles to herself, holding herself back from reaching up to touch the small solitaire studs in her ears. “Thank you,” is all she says.

Daisy orders champagne for everyone once they’re all seated at a table on one of the hotel’s terraces, and after they’ve all placed their lunch orders, she raises her glass.

“To Jemma,” she says as the others lift their glasses. “I don’t know what we did to deserve you, but we’re better for it and alive because of it. Thanks for being you.”

Jemma looks sincerely touched by these words, smiling shyly and looking down.

“Same to all of you,” she says, as they touch glasses. “Seems like all we do is save each other, and I guess it’s a good thing we do.”

The conversation throughout the meal is relaxed and the food is delicious, but Melinda notices Elena restraining a grimace more than once and barely nibbling at the food on her plate. She seems to be making an effort to act natural and not draw attention to herself, so Melinda decides to wait until they get back up to the room after lunch to say anything.

As soon as the door of their bedroom is closed behind them, though, Melinda turns to the other woman. 

“How far along are you?”

Elena looks a little startled by the question but recovers quickly. Her tone tells Melinda that she’s not that surprised that someone noticed.

“Nine weeks,” she answers quietly, sitting down on her bed. “I just found out a couple of weeks ago. What tipped you off?”

“Well, you were pretending to drink your champagne but the level in your glass never went down. And I’m guessing you were having some kind of aversion to someone’s food.”

Elena wrinkles her nose, lying back on the bed and sighing. “There were a lot of onions in someone’s food. I couldn’t even see them but I could smell them.”

“I’ve heard the food aversions are worst in the beginning,” Melinda offers, moving to sit on her own bed across from the other woman, “but they get better.”

“I hope so,” Elena says from behind closed eyes. “I’m missing good food when I’m not smelling it. My diet has never been this bland.”

“Does Mack know?” Melinda asks hesitantly, and this causes Elena to look at her again.

“Of course,” she says with a glowing smile. “We’re both over the moon.”

“But you don’t want to steal the weekend,” Melinda infers, understanding, and Elena shrugs, one hand falling to her lower abdomen.

“Well, you know how you aren’t supposed to announce too early—things can happen. And it’s not like we can’t celebrate this after the wedding.” Melinda can hear her trying to sound casual, but the excitement is clear and present in her eyes.

“Congratulations,” Melinda says then with a smile, embarrassed for not having offered it sooner. “You guys are going to be amazing parents.”

“ _Si Dios lo quiere_ ,” Elena says, elbowing herself up and smiling back.

“Do you want me to run downstairs and get you something else to eat?” May offers. “You didn’t get much of your lunch down.”

“I packed plenty of boring snacks,” Elena says, sounding resigned. She nudges back the flap of her duffel with her toe, and Melinda sees the packages of rice cakes, crackers, almonds, and oatmeal bars scattered amongst the clothes. “I’ll make it to dinner.”

“I’ll try to do my part to help you keep the act up,” Melinda says, just as Daisy calls from the next room.

“Are you all ready yet? There’s four chairs under some palm trees calling our names!”

Elena smiles, wrinkling her nose at Melinda.

“Bet I can get dressed faster than you,” she teases, and Melinda rolls her eyes.

“Do I get to declare a handicap?”

It’s the low season in Hawaii now, so the beach is mercifully uncrowded as they all spread out across four lounge chairs in the half-shade of the tipped palm trees, and Melinda offers to stay with their things while Daisy leads the charge out into the surf. Melinda hasn’t missed the way Daisy’s enthusiasm for every activity so far has been just one degree too high, but she tells herself that the girl deserves to ignore any pain she wants to this weekend. They’re all still carrying scars—Simmons has yet to go deeper than her knees into the water—if they’ve learned anything by now, it’s how to ignore them.

Jemma returns to the chair beside Melinda’s after a little while, stretching out and closing her eyes as the sun dries the water off her skin. Melinda thinks she may be dozing off and goes back to watching Daisy and Elena not-so-subtly challenging the ocean with their powers—Elena running over shallow water without breaking the surface, Daisy causing waves to break over invisible barriers of air, Elena invisibly pushing Daisy right into one…

“How are things with Coulson?” Simmons asks beside her, and Melinda looks over, surprised. Jemma has one arm tucked over her eyes, shielding them from the sun, but she’s peering over at Melinda with a knowing smile. “You guys have been living together over a year now. Things are well?”

Melinda smiles a little, that same warm feeling squeezing her chest. “Very well.”

“He still happy as Director?” Jemma asks, and Melinda shrugs.

“I think so, for a few more years at least. He’s starting to face the facts that he won’t be fit and able forever.”

Simmons moves her arm and looks at Melinda fully, her brow pinching in concern. “I didn’t mean it like that—“

“I know, Jemma,” Melinda cuts her off, “but it’s a fact we’re both trying to make peace with that the moment—so I’m practicing.”

“I’m sure the job is his for as long as he wants it,” Simmons offers, levering herself up and adjusting the back of her chair so that she’s sitting upright next to her.

“Maybe,” Melinda responds, “but he’s going to pass the baton eventually, and maybe sooner rather than later. We’re not too worried about the future of SHIELD anymore. Not with your crew leading it.”

She meets Jemma’s eyes over the last words, and the two share a quiet smile.

“You know we learned from the best,” Simmons says, and Melinda thinks back to the first months they spent together on the Bus, a splinter team with a pair of untested scientists, a resurrected leader, an untrustworthy hacker, a traitor who had yet to be unmasked, and herself—the one who was supposed to be above it all.

That was back before so many things. The girl in front of her now had been a different person then. They all had been.

Before she can change her mind, Melinda reaches over and touches Jemma’s hand, the hand now weighted with a sapphire and promises, and the girl (not a kid anymore, but still a girl) looks over at her, seeming surprised.

“If I don’t get a chance to say it later,” Melinda says, staring solemnly into her eyes, “I want you to know that I’m so proud of you.”

Jemma smiles, looking the tiniest bit tearful as she turns her hand beneath Melinda’s and squeezes her fingers. “Thank you.”

Melinda maintains the contact for a few more seconds before pulling her hand back, turning her gaze back towards the pair of Inhumans in the ocean.

“Your earrings are lovely by the way,” Jemma says as she pulls a book from her bag and settles deeper into her chair, and Melinda smiles, this time letting herself reach up and touch the diamonds, confirming that they’re still there.

“Thank you.”

~

A couple of hours later when they traipse back into the room, everyone’s skin at least one shade darker and Jemma’s freckles much more pronounced, Daisy suggests smoothies and orders a fruit and yogurt spread from room service before setting up the suite’s provided blender and revealing the mini-pack of fruity liquors she had packed in her duffle.

“Sure is nice not having to go through airport security,” she jokes as she starts organizing the fruit combinations.

Elena is asleep curled up against one arm of the sofa within minutes, and she stays asleep even while Daisy runs the blender. May smiles to herself, wondering how much is jetlag and sun weariness and how much of the woman’s tiredness is for a different reason.

“Let her sleep while she can,” she says later when she stops Daisy from waking her up to offer her a drink. “We can go out on the balcony.”

There are four lounge chairs out there, set up with thick, sun-warmed cushions, and all of them end up dozing off at some point, waking only when Elena slides the screen door open and shuffles out.

“You all copied me,” she mutters, and Daisy smiles sleepily as she hops to her feet.

“I’ll go get your drink—I left it in the freezer.”

“Is there alcohol in it?” Elena calls after her, raising an eyebrow.

“Just a little,” Daisy calls from the kitchen. “But I can add more.”

“No need,” Elena says, glancing at May once, who smiles knowingly. “Is there one without?”

“It’s just a little bit of coconut rum,” Daisy says, returning to the balcony and pressing the frosted glass into Elena’s hands. “It won’t put you under for the evening…”

“Eh, still, would rather not,” Elena says casually, carrying the drink to the vacant chair and setting it on the table beside it.

Melinda glances subtly at Daisy, who is giving the other woman a quizzical look. “Elena, you have never turned down a beer for as long as I’ve known you, now what are—“

“Oh my god!” Jemma suddenly gasps from between them, looking excitedly over at Elena, who glances at May, who shrugs.

_Your call._

Elena looks over at Daisy, who finally seems to have put two and two together, her mouth falling open in shock.

“Wait a minute, are you—“

The next few moments are a blur of hugs and happy exclamations, and Daisy announces one more toast, though this time Elena has only a virgin smoothie in her glass.

~

That night, after a torch-lit dinner and a sunset walk on the beach, everyone is sleepy and exhausted by the time nine o’clock rolls around, since it would be three in the morning on the east coast by then. Elena showers first, and by the time Melinda gets out of her shower after that, the other woman is sleeping soundly. Melinda falls into the bed across from her, wondering if she’s tired enough to sleep all the way to dawn.  

Somewhat predictably, however, she wakes up at two in the morning, what would be _eight_ in the city she left. For nearly an hour, she forces herself to stay in bed and not turn on the light, attempting to will herself back to sleep. By the time the bedside clock ticks past three though, Melinda gives up, taking her book and phone and slipping out of the bedroom quietly.

The balcony doors are standing open in the living room, and Melinda goes out into the cool night air without turning on any lights. Both she and the other person on the balcony jump at the sight of each other, though.

“Sorry,” Daisy says immediately, unfolding slightly from the lounge chair where she’s curled up with her phone. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I trained you well,” Melinda responds with an easy smile, taking the chair next to Daisy’s. “Can’t sleep?”

“Jet lag,” Daisy answers, setting her phone on the small tripod table between them.

Melinda glimpses her tired eyes and wonders if Daisy has managed to sleep at all yet.

“This was a great day,” she says, catching Daisy’s eye in the half-light. “I think Jemma is having lots of fun.”

Daisy’s lips turn up slightly, by far her least enthusiastic smile of the day. “Good. I’m glad she wanted to do this. I think we all kind of needed this.”

Melinda smiles, nodding certainly. “We did.”

_You do._

For a few minutes, the two of them sit in the near-silence of night, buffeted by the distant sound of waves crashing on the beach, and Melinda considers leaving this talk for another day, another time and place.

 _You may not have a better time, though,_ a nagging voice in her head reminds her, so Melinda eventually sets her book aside and turns slightly towards Daisy on the chair across from her.

“You know, Daisy, even though all these things are changing, it doesn’t mean you’re getting pushed out of the family.”

Daisy sits motionless on her chair for a long moment, blinking toward the stars above them, but Melinda just waits patiently—Daisy’s never quite mastered the talent of leaving things to silence.

Finally, the girl sighs. “I know, May.” Her voice sounds heavy, and Melinda sees her bite her lip once. “But you know, it’s hard _not_ to feel like that’s what’s happening, even if no one’s doing it on purpose. Everyone’s pairing up, starting their own families, and I…I’m just kind of getting left behind.”

Melinda stares sadly through the darkness at Daisy, feeling her heart break a little, and turns more fully on her chair to face the girl beside her.

“There’s no race for this part of your life—no one has to do anything according to anyone else’s timeline. Don’t let anyone make you think that,” she says firmly, deciding not to derail the conversation by reminding Daisy that she had been thirty-six when she got married for the first time.

“I know. I know,” Daisy is saying, nodding but still avoiding Melinda’s gaze. “The thing is…I’ve spent a large part of my life trying _not_ to picture my future because I hate being proven wrong. Having no expectations, it’s harder to get disappointed, you know?”

Melinda waits, remembering all over again how much this girl has been through in her comparatively short life, and Daisy finally goes on, her voice sounding progressively less sure of itself.

“…But I guess…I guess the six of you had kind of become a permanent expectation…” Daisy says, still staring intently up at the stars. “Whatever DNA says, you guys are my family. And I had kind of sworn to myself that I was going to do my best to never lose you.”

Melinda can’t reach Daisy’s hand, so she settles for putting it solidly on the arm of Daisy’s chair. “You’re not losing anyone,” she reminds the girl. “You’re just getting promoted, Daisy. To Aunt and in-law.”

Daisy finally looks over at her, meeting Melinda’s eyes in the blue-tinged darkness and attempting to smile again.

“Whose sister does that make me?”

It’s an attempt at lightening the air between them, but Melinda has more things to say.

“Futures are messy, Daisy,” she says quietly, withdrawing her hand and looking out at the night around them. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of—trying to avoid putting expectations on your future. No one really can make any plan for the future that every person and every force of nature will support. We make our promises and do our best, but sometimes things happen. Sometimes they’re things that we could have done better; sometimes they’re things we couldn’t have stopped.”

Waves crash in the distance, and Melinda has a feeling they’re both remembering of some of the same people they’ve lost in different ways over the years, casualties of forces they couldn’t stop.

_Trip._

_Bobbi and Hunter._

_Andrew._

_Lincoln._

“But that’s the thing about life,” Melinda says, pushing past the memories, “is it _does_ keep going. Five years ago, you didn’t know any of us. None of us could have predicted what the next few years would hold. And now who knows what will happen in the next five?”

Daisy is quiet for a long time, and when Melinda finally looks over at her, the girl is smiling, the playful glint back in her eye.

“You know, this is more words than I’ve heard you say in the past three years combined,” Daisy says, all but smirking.

Melinda smiles back, huffing out a small laugh. “Well, I guess you could say Coulson’s greased my hinges a little.”

“ _Dear god,”_ Daisy says forcefully, clapping her hands over her ears and squirming down into a ball. “Don’t _ever_ say that again. Did you not _hear_ that in your head before you said it?”

Melinda lets herself laugh, something that has become easier and easier to do in the past year, and Daisy groans decide her, still squirming dramatically on her chair.

“Ughhhhh, don’t laugh, May, how would you feel if _your_ mom joked about her sex life in front of you?” the girl grumbles, and Melinda’s laugh tapers off while Daisy goes self-consciously still, sprawled out on the chair like a dog scratching its back.

Silence reigns again, but Melinda doesn’t know how to break it this time. Daisy lies so still for so long that Melinda almost wonders if she’s finally drifted off to sleep, but eventually the girl speaks again, this time in barely a whisper.

“May?” the girl whispers, as if checking that she’s still there, still listening.

“Hmm?”

Daisy is still staring up at the stars, as if her thoughts are millions of miles away. Her voice remains soft, making Melinda want to lean closer to listen.

“May, if I ever got married someday…and I did the whole wedding thing like Jemma with a pretty dress and flowers and an audience of everyone I loved most…”

Melinda is ready to answer, “Of course we’d be there.”

But after a long pause, that’s not the question Daisy launches into the air between them.

“May, would you and Coulson walk me down the aisle?”

For a long moment, Melinda says nothing. She _can’t_ say anything.

But Daisy made the leap, so Melinda can certainly take the steps.

She stands up from her chair and crosses the small space between them, crowding onto Daisy’s chair with her and pulling the girl into her arms. Melinda doesn’t think they’ve ever done this, even in the most intense moments, and now she wonders why she withheld it for so long, especially when Daisy clings to her with a strength that tells May she understands what this means, and when Melinda finally can get a word out, she leaves it at one.

“Absolutely.”

* * *

**Jemma:**

The bed across from her is empty, but a slight headache is present when Jemma wakes up the following morning. Groaning inside a sigh and rolling away from the bright morning light filtering through the gossamer curtains, Jemma stretches beneath the sheets before groping for her phone on the nightstand.

 _How were the festivities last night?_ The waiting text from Fitz reads.

Smiling to herself, Jemma unlocks her phone and types a reply.

 _As wonderful and sincere and sappy as they come,_ she replies. _How’s time with your Mum?_

A reply doesn’t come immediately, and Jemma reminds herself of the time-difference that puts Scotland eleven hours ahead. It’s earlier in the morning than she expected, which she guesses is of course the time difference working its sorcery over her.

Deciding Fitz is likely being polite and not interrupting dinner with his mum to text her back, Jemma levers herself up and shuffles to the adjoining bathroom, then out to the common area in search of the others.

Elena is standing at the open doors to the balcony with a cup of coffee in her hand, the cool ocean breeze blowing lightly into the room around her.

“Morning!” she says with a smile as she catches sight of Jemma. “Daisy wanted me to make sure you knew there is plenty of tea in the cupboard if you like.”

“Wonderful,” Jemma murmurs, shuffling towards the little kitchen area and immediately filling the electric kettle. “Did Daisy go out?”

“No, I found her and May dozing on the balcony a little while ago and sent them back to bed,” Elena says with a smile, joining her in the kitchen. “They both went to the other room so they wouldn’t wake you.”

“Aw, how sweet,” Jemma says, leaning against the counter and gazing over at Elena. Now that she knows the secret, Jemma’s a little ashamed that she didn’t catch on sooner—Elena has been positively radiant since she arrived yesterday. Jemma had assumed it was still the lingering newlywed bliss, but now, she can also see the small changes in other places too.

“Have you been experiencing much morning sickness?” Jemma asks, and though she seems a little surprised by the question, Elena only shrugs.

“Not so much, just certain food and smell aversions I didn’t have before, and those last all day.”

“What are those, for you, specifically?” Jemma asks. “We can do our best to avoid any events like yesterday’s lunch today.”

Elena smiles, reaching over to brush Jemma’s hand once in thanks. “So far, spicy foods and onions have been my only enemies. Hopefully, we’ll hold steady at only those. I’m counting on Mack’s baby to be as easygoing as he is, _si Dios lo quiere_.”

“Well, this baby is also fifty-percent you,” Jemma reminds her, squeezing her hand once before reaching for the kettle, which has finished boiling. “So I’m wondering just how high-energy it may turn out to be.”

As she pours water over the teabag in her cup, Elena chuckles. “We had the same conversation. Either way, we’re counting on being surprised.”

At that moment, May shuffles out of the second bedroom, walking wordlessly between them and going straight to the kettle.

“Is Daisy still sleeping?” Jemma asks, glancing back at the partly-closed door.

“More or less,” May mumbles, preparing her own cup of tea. “She woke up a little when I left, so she may be out here soon.”

“Is she okay?” Jemma asks in a soft voice then, knowing May has surely seen exactly what she has in the past day.

May glances at her briefly, knowingly, and Jemma is sure she’s right.

“She is,” May says quietly. “She’s doing the same thing we all are—trying to get ready for a lot of changes.”

A thoughtful moment of quiet follows those words, broken only by the soft sounds of them sipping their drinks.

“We’re still all a family—she knows that, right?” Jemma finally asks softly, glancing at May, who nods once.

“She does. But I think as much as she trusts you all, she’ll believe it when she sees it.”

“Well, obviously our home is always open,” Elena says, glancing between the two of them. “And I expect her to be as wonderful of an aunt as she has been a friend.”

May smiles. “She knows that too. And I’m sure that she really is happy for everyone.”

Another moment of quiet follows, but, surprisingly, it’s May who breaks it first.

“Are you excited?” she asks, looking over at Jemma, who feels an involuntary smile spread across her face.

“ _So_ excited,” she admits. “It seems like such a simple, ordinary thing compared to everything else we’ve been through together, but I…I can’t wait.”

Both the other women smile at her, and Jemma is reminded that May has been through this before too—was once engaged, was once married…

“What’s it like?” Jemma asks then, glancing between the two of them. “Is married life…” She can’t come up with a way to finish the sentence, but Elena just smiles and nods.

“It’s wonderful,” she promises. “Especially when it’s the right person.”

Jemma glances at May, wondering about the mystery of her past Big Day. “Your wedding—what was it like?”

May shrugs, glancing down into her tea. “We eloped. It wasn’t much of an event.”

“Where to?” Elena asks, looking over at May, who raises her head.

“Which time?”

There’s a moment of confused silence where Jemma’s eyes dart to May’s bare left hand, back up to her face, which is pulled in a small, knowing smirk, over to the solitaire studs in her ears…

“You—you and Coulson—when?” Jemma exclaims, barely remembering to keep her voice down for Daisy’s sake.

May smiles shyly, glancing down as she answers. “A couple of months ago. On paper, anyway. He wanted to make it official in case of any more…unexpected turns of events.”

Jemma squeals happily, setting her nearly-empty teacup down and hopping over to hug May’s enthusiastically, though not hard enough to make her spill her tea.

“Congratulations!” she says, grinning as she pulls away. “It’s only ten years overdue.”

Elena is smiling, but she still looks a little confused. “I’m sorry, I’m still lost—where is your ring?” she says, glancing at May’s hand again.

May pushes back her hair on one side and gestures to the diamond in her earlobe. “Coulson has a ring, but I told him this made more sense for me. Neither of us wanted a nice ring to get broken in a fight.”

“ _You got married and you didn’t tell us?”_ a third voice joins the chaos, and they all look to see Daisy standing in the bedroom’s doorway, hair still pillow-mussed but looking completely awake.

Jemma looks over at May for her response, but the woman only shrugs.

“In my defense, we haven’t told anyone. My parents don’t even know yet.”

“Looks like everyone was trying not to shadow Jemma’s big day,” Elena remarks with a smile, and Jemma feels her heart expand in her chest until it’s taking up so much room she can barely breathe.

If there is anything in this cosmos that wants anything at all to play out as ordered, then she’s just glad that power wanted them to have each other.

To have this.

Daisy looks dumbstruck for a half-second longer, but then she practically vaults over the counter to grab May into a hug.

“Congratulations!” she shrieks, and May’s tea does slosh dangerously out of her cup as Daisy crashes into her, but just as suddenly, the cup and recovered tea are sitting harmlessly on the counter, and the burst of air across their skin announces that they have Elena to thank for it. Jemma gives her a knowing smile, and Elena winks as she adds her congratulations to the chaos.

“Well, _I’m_ not keeping any big secrets, I promise,” Daisy eventually says, stepping back from May and looking over at Jemma, who shakes her head and slips an arm around her waist.

“I would be just as happy if you were, but I’m glad. It just means we’ll get to throw another big celebration all for you and try to top this weekend.”

Daisy’s smile looks lighter than it has in years, and Jemma glances at May and Elena, both projecting a peace that Jemma is so glad is finally theirs to cherish.

“Make some coffee or something Daisy,” Jemma says suddenly, picking up her teacup again. “We need to make another toast!”

Daisy’s grin widens, and she quickly darts to the coffeemaker to fill a fourth cup, but just then, there’s a knock at the door.

“Room service!” a voice calls form the other side, and the four of them look quizzically around at one another.

“I set it up yesterday,” May says, stepping over to the door and checking the peephole. She steps back to open the door, and a cart rolls into the room, pushed by a hunched hotel worker with shoulder-length jet-black hair.

“Breakfast for four,” the woman announces as she rolls the cart over to the dining table and begins transferring the trays over. “Extra fresh fruit, extra cream for the scones, and no onions anywhere in any dish…”

Jemma’s heart tells her the truth before her brain can catch up to it, stuttering once in her chest at the sound of a familiar voice.

_She sounds so much like…_

But Daisy gets the word out first.

“Bobbi?”

The woman looks up, meeting her eyes, and then Jemma knows for sure.

“Oh my god!”

Bobbi’s face breaks into the familiar wide grin, and she finally straightens up, reaching up to tug the black wig off.

“Hey there,” she mutters, tugging an elastic out of her hair and letting her blonde waves tumble down to her shoulders again. “I hear someone’s getting married!”

That’s all she gets out before Jemma crashes into her, hauling her into an impossibly tight embrace and nearly squealing with delight against her chest. Daisy is right behind her, wrapping both of them in a bone-crushing hug and actually hopping up and down.

“Hey, you two!” Bobbi says, her grin audible as she hugs them back heartily. “Long time, no see!”

“Do you just _happen_ to have a new job at the hotel where I planned the bachelorette weekend?” Daisy says, finally releasing them both and stepping back, her grin from ear to ear.

“Oh yeah, I retired from espionage and took a job as a bellhop. Great benefits,” Bobbi teases, kissing Jemma’s cheek as she finally releases her and steps back too.

“But, how did you—“

“ _Someone_ —“ Bobbi continues with a pointed look at May, who is hanging back just beyond the mayhem, “tipped me off to the time and place, and I could hardly miss a weekend like this.”

“May, you absolute _beauty_ ,” Jemma says, batting away a happy tear as Bobbi darts over to catch May in a hug that lifts her slightly off the ground, but May actually smiles and hugs her back, looking more than a little smug.

“Were you nearby?” Jemma asks as Bobbi goes to greet Elena with a hug and a kiss on the cheek too. “Where have you been? I have so many questions!”

Bobbi grins at her as she shrugs out of her hotel-worker’s vest and shirt. “Hunter and I were in the Philippines when I heard from May, which isn’t necessarily _close_ , but it’s hardly the other side of the world from Hawaii.”

“Where’s Hunter?” Daisy asks, bouncing on her feet. “Under the cart?”

“Oh, no, I wouldn’t dream of letting him crash a girl’s weekend,” Bobbi laughs, showing Daisy that the space beneath is empty before tossing her discarded garments under the cart. “If he pulled it off, though, he, Coulson, and Mack should be righteously embarrassing Fitz somewhere in Scotland right about now.”

Bobbi turns back to Jemma, dropping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into another quick hug. “Now, I hear you and your other half are finally making it official, and I want to hear _everything_.”

Jemma looks over at May and Elena, at Daisy, who can’t seem to stop smiling.

“Oh my god, Bobbi, we have so much to tell you!”


End file.
